


Spaces Between My Fingers

by MiniNephthys



Category: Shin Megami Tensei II
Genre: Blood and Gore, Community: kink_bingo, Eye Gouging, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-13
Updated: 2013-08-13
Packaged: 2017-12-23 10:15:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/925171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucifer picks up the pieces, when there are any.  For square "guro".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spaces Between My Fingers

Lucifer picks up the pieces, when there are any.

Sometimes there aren't. Sometimes Aleph's reincarnation is dissolved in a pool of magatsuhi and not a single hair of him is left. Jyoji Hijiri went that way. Lucifer spoke of him in the most removed terms to the Demifiend in part because of that - without a shred of him in this world, there was nothing left for Lucifer to be attached to. There shouldn't have been, at least.

Sometimes there aren't any pieces. Aleph's reincarnations are burnt to ash that blows away on the wind, or they disappear into nothingness, or there simply is enough that needs Lucifer's attention more than a deceased friend that he doesn't get to Aleph's body before insects eat it.

And sometimes? Sometimes Aleph's reincarnations find someone in their brief life who will, in the midst of the world's destruction, take time out to give the man a respectful burial. They may even say a few words over his grave. The lucky ones go on to fight against the cause of his death; most follow him sometime after.

But that's rare in and of itself. Aleph's reincarnations usually die alone.

Today, in this world, one of them died in an iron maiden. Lucifer wonders briefly at the fascination the device holds: a sign of the 'inhumanity' of older times that was invented long after those times had passed. The creator of this one passed away not a few hours later from failure to control a demon, and Lucifer deems it unlikely that even if he was noticed, anyone would care about his visit.

The door to the iron maiden is difficult to open from the outside, and doubtless more so from the inside. Lucifer finds the catches eventually and pulls the front door open.

Blood drips over his suit from the spikes, blood and other bits of organs whose connection to the body was fragile. He wipes off the important pieces (Aleph would want to have his eyes) and puts them away in his pocket for lack of anywhere else to stow them at the moment.

The body of Aleph's reincarnation is still pinned to the back of the iron maiden. It looks as though he put up a struggle, as there are bruises unrelated to the spikes that had gone through him. Lucifer steps closer to him, into the small pool of blood at the bottom of the maiden, and begins to lift him off the back of the maiden.

It takes a minute, but eventually they emerge. Lucifer shuts the maiden, not wanting to look at the remaining blood and guts that had stayed slick on the spikes, and carries the body outside.

Graves are not hard to dig, particularly with experience.

Lucifer fishes in his pocket for Aleph's eyes and places them back in their sockets. They stare straight ahead, as he expected them to, but it is a step up from not having them. He wipes down some of the blood off the reincarnation's body with a handkerchief, before setting him inside the grave.

This is always the hardest part: staring down at the body whose soul has gone on to another cursed life and miserable death. Sometimes he says something, and sometimes he doesn't.

This time he doesn't. Silence blankets them for a few minutes before Lucifer begins to cover yet another body with dirt.


End file.
